A lot of people have never considered this, but the “thinker” is a protrusion, a concoction, of the thinking process, not the other way around. There is no center — no central “thinker” — controlling “thoughts” via dominance from a psychological distance. There is only a mind of order or disorder. When thinking is not in occurrence, there is no thinker. (Actually, in a very fundamental way, there never was a separate, dominating thinker in the first place; a “separate thinker” is just a primitive fabrication of thought/thinking that has no real validity, no real existence.) This is not something to get upset or frightened about, unless you want to live perpetually in a primitive, barbaric framework. Living without the ego can be — and is — a great joy; it can be a blessed life of great benedictions and blessings. The alternative is to live an ordinary, mediocre life of perpetual deception and inner deceit (as so many do), and that is hardly real living at all. You are thoughts as they occur. You are the thoughts (as reactions), not something central having them; when that is fully understood, then there is the possibility of existing beyond them (at times), which is wonderful and high-minded (rather than merely selfish). Profound awareness often transcends beyond thoughts and thinking; such awareness is great intelligence and compassion.